Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, right, along with Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, center, hold a news conference in his chambers addressing the state budget spending plan for the new fiscal year that starts in less than 40 hours Sunday, June 29, 2014 in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Bradley

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State senators finished Tuesday what Republican majority leaders viewed as the remaining pieces of budget-related legislation, although Democrats went away frustrated and a controversial bill remained undone eight days after the beginning of the new fiscal year.

The Senate narrowly passed a key budget-related bill, 26-22, that is a companion to the $29.1 billion spending plan that is sitting on Gov. Tom Corbett’s desk.

Corbett, a Republican, has until Friday night ends to sign or veto the main budget bill before it becomes law on its own. He has expressed disappointment that public pension legislation he had sought remained stalled in the Legislature and he has not said what he will do with the budget legislation while he waited out a fight between leaders of the House and Senate Republican majorities.

Every Democrat has opposed the Republicans’ budget bills, and one, Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Allegheny, took to the floor of the Senate to skewer the companion bill as a “clear violation of the public trust.”

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The 112-page bill, negotiated behind closed doors by Republicans, guides the distribution of billions of dollars for public schools and hospitals, but also orders up loosely related government functions, such as changing how oil and gas drilling is regulated in the state, establishing a new community college in northwestern Pennsylvania and allowing another $10 fee on certain state court filings.

Other provisions reduce the license fee that bar owners must pay to operate forms of gambling and cement the case for a new round of leasing publicly owned lands for natural gas drilling.

The bill, Ferlo said, was written and passed in ways that violate constitutional provisions designed to fight corruption and ensure transparency.

“We should follow the letter of the law that our constitution provides,” Ferlo said. “Many of the provisions of House Bill 278 are simply bad public policy that constitute the whims of privileged members that did not get their measures passed through the typical legislative process.”

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of Chester, defended the bill, saying it is perfectly accessible to the public and that Republicans wrote it to adhere to past court rulings.

“It’s relatively easy to read this bill,” Pileggi said on the Senate floor. “It’s in English, it’s in black and white, it’s on paper, it’s posted on the Internet, it’s on every member’s desk, and you can easily go line by line through the bill and parse out ... the provisions that are in this bill and convert them from legislative language to plain English.”

While the companion bill’s passage resolved one fight between House and Senate Republican majority leaders, another bill dealing with municipal tax codes remained in limbo.

The bill includes an authorization for Philadelphia to impose a $2 per-pack cigarette tax to raise money for its cash-strapped schools. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has warned that city schools will not open in the fall without the $80-plus million per year from the new cigarette tax.

While the Philadelphia cigarette tax authorization is no longer controversial in a Republican-controlled Legislature that can be hostile to the state’s largest city, other provisions in the wider-ranging bill remain so.

Those include an expansion of an economic development program for small cities that funnels local and state tax revenue into improvement projects and approval for three different local hotel taxes — in York and Washington counties and the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem.

A couple provisions — the Bensalem hotel tax and the expansion of the small cities program — have already been rejected once by the House, and a spokesman for House GOP leaders said Tuesday that it will be very difficult to pass it because of the potential $70 million cost to the state.

The delay in passing the Philadelphia cigarette tax is also harmful because every week that goes by means a loss of $1.6 million in revenue to the city’s schools, said Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia.

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A LOOK AT THE STATUS OF MAJOR OR NOTABLE PA. BILLS

A look at notable bills and where they stand as Pennsylvania lawmakers work to wrap up their spring session in Harrisburg:

— BUDGET: The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a $29.1 billion budget bill. It arrived on Gov. Tom Corbett’s desk on July 1, the first day of the 2014-15 fiscal year. He has not signed it, nor has he revealed what he plans to do with it. He has until 11:59 p.m. Friday to act on it before it becomes law without his signature. Under the Republicans’ budget plan, spending would increase $723 million, or 2.5 percent, over the current year’s approved budget. However, an additional $220 million would be added to the books of the just-ended fiscal year, rather than the newly begun fiscal year, making the entire package a $943 million increase, or about 3.3 percent.

— PUBLIC PENSIONS: A Corbett-backed proposal in the House stalled, while the Senate unanimously passed a more modest bill. Under the House proposal, the current traditional pension system would be replaced with a hybrid system for newly hired state and school employees. It would combine a scaled-down pension with a 401(k)-style plan in which employees make their own investment decisions. It would also remove some future retiree health benefits. Under the Senate bill, state lawmakers, judges and elected executive branch officials would be shifted upon election, or re-election, into a 401(k)-style system.

— MEDICAL MARIJUANA: A bill that won approval from the Senate Law and Justice Committee remains in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Under the bill, three strains of marijuana could be grown, processed into oils and dispensed in the form of oil extracts, edible products, ointments, tinctures or vaporization, with oversight by a state Board of Medical Cannabis Licensing.

— ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES: Legislation to liberalize Pennsylvania’s beer sales laws and loosen state control over wine and spirits remains stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee after winning approval from the Law and Justice Committee in June 2013. In March 2013, the House passed a Corbett-backed bill that would sell off 1,200 new private wine and liquor store licenses and allow thousands of bars, restaurants and grocery stores to begin selling bottles of wine, while setting a schedule to end the state government’s involvement in wine and liquor shipments and sales.

— PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS: Both the House and Senate have approved legislation authorizing a $2 per-pack cigarette sales tax in Philadelphia as a way to raise money for the city’s cash-strapped public schools. However, the provision is part of a wider bill on municipal tax codes that has bounced between the House and Senate, and continues to require House approval to get to the governor’s desk.

— UNION PAYCHECKS: Bills passed initial State Government Committee votes in the House and Senate, but remain in separate committees controlled by legislative leaders. Under the bills, state and local governments would be barred from the practice of deducting voluntary amounts for issues or political advocacy from the paychecks of most employees who are labor union members. The bills would continue to allow the practice of deducting a “fair share” amount to pay for the cost of representing employees. Firefighters and police are exempt.